Hethersett Social Bowls Club

Dates for 2025

Dates for your diary below. Dates for 2026 will be decided at the 2025 AGM.

Green Opening Roll Up (new players welcome)
Sun. 20th April 10am for 10:30 start
Club Roll up (new players welcome)
Sun. 27th April 10am for 10:30 start
Club Roll up and Social club membership payments
Sun. 8th June 10am for 10:30 start
Open Triples Tournament
Sat. 26th July
Green Closes Roll up
Sun. 7th Sept
2025 AGM
Sun. 26th October

About

Hethersett Social Bowls club is a well established club and currently has approx 40 members playing outdoors on a regular basis.

History

The game of bowls has a long history and records from 1299AD show that it was already well established in England then. There is a famous story from 1588 when Sir Frances Drake is said to have continued his game of bowls as the Armada approached with the words “we still have time to finish the game and to thrash the Spaniards, too.”

Why play?

Outdoor (or indoor) bowls is a sport for all ages and abilities. Many people do enjoy the game during retirement, but there are also younger players from early teens to those who have to rush away from work on a regular basis to get to a game on time. The aim of the game is simple. Get your bowls as close as possible to a small white ball called the 'jack'.

A challenge

It might sound easy, but the fact that the bowls do not travel in a straight line seriously adds to the tactical challenge. The bowls are not quite round and have an in-built bias. As the bowl slows, it begins to roll in the direction of the bias. Bowlers will therefore change the side of the bias, depending on the direction in which they want the bowl to curve.

Join Us

At Hethersett Social we play in 5 leagues, so there's plenty of chances to have a game.

When

We play from May to late August and we are always looking for experienced players to join our teams. At Hethersett Social we play in 5 leagues with games 3 or 4 evenings a week either at home or away and also on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.

Have a go

If you simply would like to find out more, learn how to play the game or would prefer to just play socially, we have a roll-up on Sunday morning at 10am with no dress code to which anyone is welcome. We can provide some bowls for new players to start with.

Make friends

Outdoor there are several different versions of the game, played with 2, 3 or 4 bowls and in rinks (straight lines across the green) or roving (using most of the green). The game may be played as singles or pairs (mostly competition games), triples or fours.

Annual Tournament

We hold a triples tournament every year for all abilities.

Winners 2023 (Norfolk Bowling Club) above. Thanks to everyone who helped to make the day a success including monies raised for LILAC Fundraising group for Big C Cancer Charity. The tournament took place at Hethersett Social Bowls Club on Queens Road and 23 teams battled their way through 5 rounds of very close games to reach the final.

2025 tournament will be on Saturday 26th July 2025 - Contact Carole Slaughter (email below) for entry forms.